Mets' Carlos Mendoza on taking David Peterson out in eighth inning: 'He did his part'

After getting through the seventh inning without allowing a run and the Mets leading the Baltimore Orioles 1-0, cameras caught David Peterson and manager Carlos Mendoza briefly talking in the dugout. The manager didn't shake his lefty's hand to signal his outing was done and sure enough Peterson took the field once again for the bottom of the eighth inning of a one-run game.

However, after Peterson allowed a leadoff hit to Colton Cowser, Mendoza went out to the mound and took the ball from the left-hander after just 90 pitches, opting to go with Ryne Stanek to try and finish out the inning.

"You’re already in the eighth inning -- 90 pitches. He did his part," Mendoza said in his explanation of taking out Peterson.

With the right-hander Stanek in the game, the Orioles countered with the lefty-swinging Gunnar Henderson as a pinch-hitter and he unloaded on a 2-1 slider down and in for a two-run shot that flipped the game on its head.

Stanek was unable to get out of the inning and ended up walking four batters -- he threw 31 pitches and only 11 of them were for strikes. It's the second straight outing the right-hander threw more than 30 pitches and his ERA now sits at 4.55.

"I just wasn’t able to find my rhythm and get in sync with my body today," Stanek said.

The decision to pull Peterson in the eighth inning was an interesting choice. Not only had he been cruising for the entire game and was efficient with his pitches, it also enabled the Orioles to deploy some of their better left-handed hitters who were not in the starting lineup against a tough lefty as opposed to letting Peterson go after perhaps less-threatening righties.

"Once he got through the seventh with a lefty leading off, I knew it was gonna be batter to batter," Mendoza said. "Cowser got him there going the other way and once you get to the eighth inning I had Stanek ready. It just didn’t happen today."

Mendoza also told reporters that Peterson was actually going batter to batter from the start of the seventh inning, "especially with all the righties that were there."

With the All-Star break coming up, Peterson pitching great and showing no signs of slowing down and it being the first game of a doubleheader where the second game will be a bullpen game, it would stand to reason for Mendoza to try and ride Peterson for as long as he could.

"It was just one of those where we felt like against the righties there, you know – especially once he gets through the seventh and then goes back out for the eighth. We turned it over to our guys and we didn’t get the job done today," the skipper said.

Of course, had Mendoza left Peterson in the game longer than he did, who knows what would have happened instead. Although, nobody would have faulted him for sticking with his left-hander in that situation.

"We can sit here and talk about it all we want, at the end of the day we didn’t execute offensively," Mendoza said.